Denier hurried on without stopping, and arrived outside the city of Leeuwarden in the middle of the night. Arriving near Leeuwarden, Denier was careful to abandon his horse and walk instead.
In fact, it was Denier's caution that saved his life. Otherwise, if he rode close to the city of Leeuwarden, before he could get close to the Swiss camp, he would be spotted by the secret sentinel sent by Sauer, and then he did it.
After careful observation, Denier found the camp set up by the Swiss in the east of the city. Here, mainly the Swiss under Chieg's command, and Marin's troops, are basically in the west of the city.
Arriving at the gate of the big camp, after showing his identity certificate with the Swiss guards, Denier was invited into the big tent...
Speaking of which, Denier is no stranger to the Swiss. As a diplomat of the King of France, he was sent to Switzerland many times by the King of France to recruit mercenaries to fight for the King of France. Therefore, many of the Swiss mercenaries recognized him. Including Chieg, many Swiss mercenary generals are old acquaintances of Denier.
"Welcome, welcome! Baron Denier, what brought you here? This is a battlefield, and it's very dangerous!" Zieg was also very enthusiastic when he saw Denier. He had contacted Denier before. , and France is the largest customer of the Swiss, so it is natural to smile at each other.
"Mr. Zieg, can you explain to me why you helped Marin Hoffman to fight?" Denier's face was black, suppressing the anger in his heart.
Marin is the enemy of the French, but the Swiss are allies of the French. The allies help the enemy, which makes Denier feel betrayed.
"Lord Denier, you know, we are only mercenaries, not the French royal army. I see that His Majesty the King is unlikely to hire us this year, so I will take on other jobs. You know, we are Mercenaries, this is the only way to make a living..." Zieg said indifferently. In the eyes of the Swiss, fighting a war is just a job to earn a living, nothing more.
"However, you can't serve Marin Hoffman! You know, he is my king's enemy. Moreover, he is also a running dog of the Habsburg family. Aren't you and the Habsburg family are deadly enemies? Why? Why help this bastard?"
"We are not French, and we have a good partnership with France. Although Baron Marin is a subordinate of the Habsburg family, he has no enmity with the Swiss. Moreover, he is willing to pay double the high price to hire us, a lot People are tempted. Do you know? The total price of this contract is 36,000 gold coins for two months!" Zieg is not afraid that this secret will be known by the French. He wished that the French would know this price, so that it would be convenient for them to raise the price with the French in the future and ask for more commission.
"36,000 gold coins? Is this guy crazy? Where did he get so much money to pay?" With a big reward, there must be a brave man, and Denier suddenly understood why the Swiss were moved.
"I don't know if he had enough money to support him before, but I know that we will win this battle. Even if Baron Marin can't pay the final payment, the Frisians can help."
The matter is already obvious, Leeuwarden has been besieged, and it is only a matter of time before the city is broken. As long as the city is broken, there will be many benefits, and Marin has promised that the Swiss can send troops to rob Leeuwarden. Moreover, Zieg is not worried that the other party will have reinforcements. Because, even if the opponent has money, they cannot hire equally brave Swiss mercenaries. The reason for this is that Swiss mercenaries have a tradition of "Swiss don't fight Swiss". And the French, even if they wanted to rescue Friesland, they would not attack them directly. If the French dared to hurt Zieg and the others, then they would not even think about hiring the Swiss to fight for them in the future. But now the French are very dependent on Swiss mercenaries, so Chieg seems very confident. He wasn't sure if the French would attack the Texel army west of the city, but he was sure the French wouldn't attack them...
"You are speculating on two sides betting!" Baron Desnel was a little annoyed.
"Whatever you think, Lord Baron, we Swiss are poor, and we can't run away when we see gold coins. It just so happens that Baron Marin is willing to pay a lot of money, so of course we are willing to come. Now, His Majesty the King refuses to pay us, and we have no money to earn , I had no choice but to come here to make extra money... "
"You are really a group of people who are blind to money..." Suddenly, Denier thought of something and began to think...
Denier knew that if Marin was allowed to occupy the Friesian noble republic, with the rogue nature of this little thief, he might not leave in the future. The situation in the Friesian Noble Republic is very special. Except for France, a secret ally, they have almost no allies. Because, although they are within the territory of the Holy Roman Empire, they do not submit to the empire and are not subject to jurisdiction. They were captured, and no one was willing to stand up for them.
If Marin really occupied Friesland and regarded it as his own territory, King Charles VIII of France would be mad. At that time, when the king was furious, as the person in charge of this incident, he would also be in bad luck, and even die.
The Qige in front of him is determined to recognize money but not people. Otherwise, he would not be willing to fight for Marin, the running dog of the Habsburg family. Therefore, if you want the Swiss to retreat, you must start with interests...
Thinking of what his boss, Earl Matthews said before, "kill the Marlin thief at any cost", Denier made a bold decision...
"Mr. Zieg, I know that the little thief Marin paid you a lot, so he moved you. So, I will pay you more now, are you willing to retreat?"
"More pay? This...not very good... If it gets out, it will ruin the credit of the Swiss..."
"What's the matter? You are mercenaries, not Marin's subordinates. If you are willing to help the Frisians attack Texel's army, France is willing to pay double the price of the thief!" De Seeing that Sieg loves money, Nier decided to impress him with benefits, and even tried to make the Swiss fight back.
"That's impossible. If we attack the previous employer for money this time, then the reputation of the entire Swiss mercenary will be ruined. In the future, no one will hire Swiss. In this case, when I return to Switzerland, I will He was hacked to pieces by his colleagues..."
The Swiss not only have the tradition of "Swiss don't beat Swiss", they also have the practice of "not stabbing their employers". That's not Swiss good manners. It is because, as long as the Swiss betray their employer once, no one will dare to hire them in the future. Therefore, even if the employer cannot pay the commission, they will leave at most and will not turn around and attack the employer.
Of course, this is not absolute, not betraying the employer is because the price tag is not enough for them to abandon their reputation. For example, around 1512, the second phase of the Italian War. Seeing that the Venetians could not resist the Swiss attack, they spent 800,000 gold coins and knocked the Swiss unconscious. As a result, tens of thousands of Swiss mercenaries turned to the Venetians regardless of honor, turned around to fight France, and drove the French away...
Joining the French as local tyrants like the Venetians, as long as they spend 200,000 gold coins, Zieg can probably kneel immediately, and then shamelessly attack Marin's army in turn. However, the French are now in a tight spot because they paid too much ransom. If you can agree to pay double the price, you have already lost your money. But at this price, it is difficult to impress the Swiss to betray morality and turn their guns.
Denier is indeed a master negotiator. He rolled his eyes and said suddenly:
"Mr. Zieger, I know you are worried about your bad reputation. But, have you ever thought about who the Swiss mercenaries mainly rely on for food? We are France! Marin Hoffman hired you at a high price only because of an emergency. Once, I may not cooperate with you again in the future. But France is different, and we will hire you more times in the future. If you are not willing to give up this operation, once you anger my king, you may not be willing to hire you to fight for France in the future …”
"This..." Zieg hesitated immediately. Marin's business was indeed sudden and did not last long. But fighting for the French is a lot of times. Ziggy is only in his 30s, and he can't just fight this one battle. As Denier said, Marin was only his occasional partner, while France was the real, long-term customer. Offending a big customer is not a good thing...
Seeing Zieg hesitate, Denier immediately strikes while the iron is hot:
"Mr. Zieger, I know your worries and your reputation will be damaged. Let's forge a document, saying that you have previously signed a document with France that gives priority to playing for France. Then, we will announce to the public that we You are hired on behalf of France to do other things. In this way, you are restricted by the previous contract and have to break the contract. By the way, did Marin and you sign the clause of liquidated damages?"
"This... really didn't..."
It was also Marin's negligence. He was eager to invite the Swiss to fight, but he didn't bring anyone who knew the law with him. Therefore, only the employment agreement was signed, but the issue of compensation if the Swiss broke the contract was not mentioned.
"That's really great. You don't need to pay compensation for breaking the contract, and you don't have to pay back to your employer. What are you waiting for? Moreover, you only need to withdraw the army, and you don't need to fight back, and you can get double the reward!"
"Can you really give me double reward?" After thinking for a while, Zieg was also tempted.
"No problem, I have 450 excellent French horses worth 54,000 gold coins and 180 sets of well-made French plate armor that I promised to Friesland. If you are willing to retreat and sign an agreement with me, I can Give it to you immediately. Then, the remaining 18,000 gold coins will also be paid to you!"
Desnel has already fought it out, although, this time, he may be in danger of being executed. But if Marin is allowed to occupy Friesland and become a great lord, he will also die. So, since this is the case, he might as well give it a go, maybe there will be a turnaround. As long as the Swiss are coaxed away, he doesn't believe that the Frisians rely on the city wall and can't stop Marin's 1,000 troops.
At midnight the next day, Desner brought 450 French horses and 180 sets of French plate armor that were intended to be delivered to the Frisians. After receiving the benefits, Chieg and Denier initially signed a secret agreement, and retreated quietly with the Swiss.
Although Marin got the news of the withdrawal of the Swiss from the scout horse sent by Sauer, he also guessed that it was probably the French who made a trick, but there was no way to stop it, and he couldn't help but sighed. He regretted that the employment contract did not specify how many times the compensation should be paid. If there were no restrictions in the contract, the Swiss would not simply withdraw. You must know that with the rise of mercantilism, Europeans value contracts, and there are very few cases of breach of contract.
However, Marin did not intend to retreat. Because, if the remnant Frisian army in the city fought in the field, it really couldn't beat the 1,000 men under him. Moreover, those captives are also under their own control.
Therefore, even if Leeuwarden cannot be captured, Marin can rely on the thousands of captives in his hands to negotiate with Friesland and demand huge benefits.
Moreover, Marin did not surround Leeuwarden on all sides because of insufficient troops. However, he was still stationed in the west of the city, and Leeuwarden's Frisian army did not dare to go out of the city to attack Marin's army.
The next step is to wait for the other party to come to sue for peace...
Marin could figure out that the food in the city must be limited, and it was impossible for the other party to persist to the end. As long as you are exhausted, the first person who can't hold it must be the other party. At the same time, he was also afraid that the French would send troops to interfere. So, as long as the Frisians sent someone to sue for peace, he would go downhill, start negotiations, and solve the problem as soon as possible. Of course, if the French want to send troops to intervene, they will have to wait at least two or three months later, and the food in Leeuwarden cannot last that long. Therefore, Marin has time to wait for negotiations...
"It's still reliable for my own people. Those hired from other places just ran away..." Marin sighed.
"Master, let's recruit more soldiers when we go back?" Schwartz echoed.
"Well! This time we must hit Friesland hard! Just use their compensation money to expand the army, and when our army is trained, we will swallow the whole of Friesland in one go!" Marin clenched his fists...